In spite of challenges facing AngloGold Ashanti, the company’s values on the communities have not changed. The company is currently engaging its stakeholders including the communities to garner support to give a new birth to the mine.
Our values on community clearly state that communities where we operate should benefit from our presence. Today, our presence here and the projects that we have commissioned underscore the fact that we have not in any way changed our values. We are indeed walking our talk. ‘We are focusing on education because it is the key to the opportunities in this tough and highly competitive world. We can improve our circumstances, uplift ourselves from poverty and become what we want to be if we take advantage of what modern education can offer us’, according to Mr. Fred Attakumah, Managing Director of Obuasi mine.
The facilities that we have commissioned today are the soft part of acquiring knowledge and skills; and the hard part is that the children who will benefit from this facility have to proverbially burn the night oil and study hard with all seriousness. As communities, united to make significant difference in the quality of lives, it behooves on Nananom and elders, parents and teachers to be mindful of their roles and responsibilities to ensure that the children attend school well prepared, regularly and coalesce with the teachers at all times, in order to optimise the best for the children. It is also your duty to ensure the facilities are well maintained at all times.
AngloGold Ashanti has on its own supported the development of education over the years. We have built more than 12 schools in Obuasi for the people in the communities. We are the main sponsors of the AngloGold Ashanti Kwame Nkrumah Lectures which we organise annually with The Institute of African Studies – University of Ghana. We built a hostel in the late 80s for Komfo Anokye Medical School.
The Obuasi Senior High Technical School is our baby. With the Trust Fund, hundreds of computers have been donated to schools in the communities to improve IT skills. We have also donated 8 mini buses to several Senior High Schools in our communities to facilitate easy movement of teachers and students.
The commissioning of these projects at this tough and challenging time means that AngloGold Ashanti and the communities can even do more if we work together to give the mine a befitting rebirth. This is where we once again need more of your support.
In fulfillment of the Stability Agreement signed between the then AngloGold and the Ghana Government in May 2004, AGA set up the ‘AGA Obuasi Community Trust Fund’ in September 2011 with seed money of US$2.5M.
The objective is not only to strengthen the social contract between AGA and its communities but to also reinforce AGA commitment to make the communities better off for AGA presence.
Since the inception of the fund, 8 Toyota Hiace Mini Buses have been donated to selected public Senior High Schools and 110 desktop computers have been donated to 22 selected Junior High schools within our catchment areas in Amansie Central District, Adansi North District, Adansi South District and Obuasi Municipal.
The projects being commissioned today are all funded by AGA Obuasi Community Trust Fund at a cost of about GHC600, 000.
This article has 0 comment, leave your comment.